In July this year ARC welcomed Pepper, a student from Highcliffe School. Pepper joined the Hop Spots team for a week of work experience to help towards her studies. During her time with ARC, Pepper kept a work diary, documenting the tasks she completed and her experiences. Read Peppers work experience diary below:

ARC WORK EXPERIENCE – DAY ONE

In the morning, Ella, Ash, and I headed off to the Reptile Centre in the New Forest. Recently some rats and birds managed to get through the netting over the amphibian and reptile pods, this caused some of the reptiles to be eaten in addition to disrupting their enclosure. We had a look at the new incomplete netting that was getting put up and generally looking to see if it was any better than the old one, while yes it was a lot more secure than the old problematic netting, it was harder to see inside (but easier to take photos if the camera was up close). After we looked at the nets we looked around the pods to see any animals, we saw a natterjack toad, a couple of slow worms, a common lizard, and a common frog. Personally, I love looking for reptiles and amphibians, even if I cannot hold or touch them, it is still really awesome to see them.

After we came back, I started painting the head of what was soon to be our ‘pebble snake’ for world snake day. I started off doing a grass snake, but proportions were not fitting to the shape of the rock, and I had limited colours, so I went with an adder instead.

ARC WORK EXPERIENCE – DAY TWO

Tuesday morning, Ella and I went to the Oceanarium in Bournemouth to have a meeting with a couple staff members working there about school programs and how to get more younger people aware of our native reptiles and amphibians.

They took us on a tour through the Oceanarium, telling us information about how ARC could help in addition to information about the animals and enclosures there, and it was nice and quite as we were taking this tour 30 minutes before opening times. Although I had nothing to contribute, it was nice seeing that not all meetings have to be super formal and they could come across as just a casual conversation. After the meeting they gave us the choice to have our own little walk round through the oceanarium (which, without hesitation, we took).

We got back a little before lunch and I finished the adder head for our ‘pebble snake’, it was lonly a few minutes before lunch I realised that if there was even a drop of precipitation then the adder head wouldn’t look so adder like, so Ella and I trekked our way through Boscombe to get ‘mod-podge’ (as sealer to help protect the pen and paint I used on the snake) from The Works and left it to dry over lunch. 

We headed out to Parley Common to begin our pebble snake and put up our makeshift sign (which consisted of an A4 laminated information sheet, half a stick of bamboo and a lot of duct tape).

ARC WORK EXPERIENCE – DAY THREE

On Wednesday, I did field work with Phil and some other volunteers for the morning. We were up at St Catherines hill and a path, near the very top, was eroding into a steep drop of heathers, so we replaced the rotting wood lining the path with new planks, making sure we chopped the wood at the right angles and that we put it in right to keep it long lasting longer and to prevent further erosion in the path. I must admit I was terrible at helping, I don’t use saws or hammers often and I was so slow compared to everyone else, but I was willing to offer them my help at any opportunity. The people working and volunteering there were kind, funny and up to giving me advice when I was doing something incorrect, plus they all had stories to tell during our breaks.

After the lunch break I was back at the office, almost the whole ARC Team in the building were in the main meeting room for survey and monitor programme training, I couldn’t participate in asking questions but it was nice to experience both a formal and casual meeting during my work experience.

ARC WORK EXPERIENCE – DAY FOUR

Thursday I was in office for the day. In the morning, I worked on my snake models, managing to finish both the adder and the smooth snake off and I’m happy with them, I really like the adder I made. I spent the rest of the day remaking that poster for world snake day that is supposed to go next to the pebble snake we made. Simply just adding more colours and making it more directed towards our target audience. 

ARC WORK EXCPERIENCE – DAY FIVE

On Friday I was mainly editing photos I took and trying to get them onto this laptop which was a lot harder than it sounded and there probably hundreds of easier ways then emailing it through my school account to myself and then converting them into pdf photo files then putting them on illustrator but what's done is done. I spent the rest of the morning writing up this while adding some last touches to the models.

After hours of editing and touch ups, I worked on some entry designs for the heathland’s art competition, drawing a common green lizard eating a bee.

Shortly after some technical issues were fixed, Ella and I made our way to Parley Common again to replace the sign with a brand new, freshly laminated one.

---

Pepper's work experience placement took place as part of the Hop Spots project made possible thanks to National Lottery Players via The National Lottery Heritage Fund, which champions heritage and environmental projects across the UK